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CEREMONIES 



THE DEDICATION 



BIGELOW'" M'O'JJ-tjirENT, 



WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, 



April 19, 1861. 



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BOSTON: 

PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON, 
. 22, School Street. 
1861. 



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PREFACE. 



TT is good to commemorate brave deeds in the cause 
of God, of country, or of humanity. It is a homage 
due to the heroic dead, and it re-acts for the benefit 
of the living. It is peculiarly meet in times like these. 
Revolutionary memories should be precious. Examples 
fitted to stir and re-animate the flame of patriotism have 
special claims to prominent remembrance. 

The courage and self-sacrifices of the earlier champions 
of our freedom and independence bequeathed lessons to 
their sons. What the former achieved, the latter are ex- 
pected to guard and maintain. The sculptured stone, 
which tells of the valor of the sires, is an empty honor, 
considered in reference to themselves. They have passed 
beyond the reach of human applause. Posthumous ovations 
avail them not. The value, the significance, is with their 
children. To them, indeed, monuments are silent monitors 
richly eloquent in the teachings of a bygone age. Too few 
of these have been reared to the memory of the intrepid 
fathers and founders of our civil liberties. May they be 
multiplied! May the tablets inscribed with their venerable 
names, their heroic deeds, or the scenes of their struggles 
and achievements, be reverently read and pondered ! And 



may the lessons conveyed be fraught with quickening 
incentives, ihustrated by the generous self-devotion, the 
constancy and courage, ■ — under the sternest calls of 
public exigency, — both of the present and each future 
generation ! 

By a fortunate coincidence, altogether contingent, the 
completion of the monument in honor of the Revolutionary 
services of Colonel Timothy Bigelow occurred in the month 
of April, this present year, — an era destined to new and 
momentous interest in our national annals. The ceremonies 
of dedication were generously undertaken by the municipal 
government and citizens of Worcester. It was decided 
that they should be celebrated on the ever- memorable 
Nineteenth, — the opening date of the War of Independence. 
Arrangements were made to such effect, and the preliminary 
notices sent abroad, before the outbreak of the mad and 
wicked Rebellion which was so soon to burst upon the 
land. Sumter, though besieged, had not been bombarded. 
It was hoped that the frenzy of the insurgents would 
pause — that it would stop — ere that last base outrage, 
content with the insult of a bare bravado. But the hope 
was delusive. The fort was assaulted, and its chivalrous 
little garrison compelled to succumb to the overwhelming 
odds combined against it. 

Washington was next threatened. An alarum sped 
through the land. The mighty heart of our people, — the 
loyal heart of the indignant North, — at length profoundly 
roused, fiercely burned to avenge the affront, and curb 
and punish such insufferable w^rong. Troops were hurried 
to the capital, — Massachusetts, as always, foremost in 
the van. ITer sons were everywhere arming. Worcester 
responded to the first drum-beat, — her gallant soldiery 



rallying promptly to the call, — their ranks daily swelling, 
and new companies formed, with a zeal and impetuosity 
almost embarrassing amidst the multifarious correspondent 
demands found needful at the hour. All were animated 
by a common impulse, — eager to battle for their country's 
imperilled rights, — impatiently awaiting the signal of 
departure for the defence of the national metropolis ; — 
all panting to join, nay, rather to lead, in the advancing 
movement. 

These stirring scenes and incidents occurring during the 
eventful week of April 12-19,* naturally so engrossed 
the minds and hearts of all, that the expediency was 
questioned of attempting any public display on an occasion 
of such comparatively trifling moment as that detailed in 
the following record. On maturer reflection, nevertheless, 
it was deemed so accordant with the spirit of the crisis, so 
intrinsically suggestive, and of such kindling, awakening 
influences bearing upon the juncture, that it was resolved 
to adhere to the arrangements previously devised, and 
carry out the programme, so far as practicable in the 
altered condition of the times. 

A public celebration in honor of the completion of the 
BiGELOW Monument was accordingly held ; and the dedica- 
tion of a structure to the memory of a brave Revolutionary 
Chief, with its formal transfer to the future guardianship 
of the authorities of his native town, as a beacon memorial 
to the present and after times, was solemnly inaugurated 
Avith the imposing ceremonies described in the ensuing 



* News of the terrible onslaught in Baltimore, at the date last named, on the 
Massachusetts Sixth Regiment in its struggle and triumphant passage through 
that city, did not reach Worcester till the afternoon of Friday, an hour or two lat"er 
than the close of the ceremonies of the day. Of course, no allusion could be made 
to the event by the speakers on the stand. 



6 



pages. The account is presented substantially as given in 
the '' Worcester Daily Spy " of Saturday, April 20, from the 
pen of D. A. Goddard, Esq., assistant editor; some addi- 
tions being made, with fuller sketches of several of the 
speeches than could conveniently appear in the columns 
of that journal. 

One feature, it should be added, in the pageant of the day, 
although not wanting, had less of the brilliancy anticipated, 
owing to the inexorable necessities of the times. The 
military — of whom a fuller display had been promised, 
comprising the entire elite of Worcester — were in general 
too busily employed in the duties of drill and equipment, 
under expectancy of an immediate march to the seat of war, 
to take part in the parade of procession. One company, 
enrolled in the valiant Sixth Regiment, had started two 
days before to aid in the defence of Washington ; and, 
at the very hour of the exercises in consecration of 
the Monument at home, were bravely fighting their way 
through Baltimore. They were honorably represented, 
notwithstanding, by the senior members of their corps ; 
the elder exempts of the Worcester Light Infantry alone 
numbering about one hundred. They made a fine appear- 
ance. 



BIGELOW MONUMENT. 



" Before noon, on the 19th of April, 1775, an express came to town, shouting 
as he passed through the street at full speed, ' To arms ! to arms ! — the war's 
begun!' His white horse, bloody with spurring, and dripping with sweat, fell 
exhausted by the church. Another was instantly procured, and the tidings went 
on. The bell rang out the alarm, cannon were fired, and messengers sent to every 
part of the town to collect the soldiery. As the news spread, the implements of 
husbandry were thrown by in the field; and the citizens left their homes, with no 
longer delay than to seize their arms. In a short time, the minute-men were 
paraded on the green, under Captain Timothy Bigelow. After fervent prayer by 
Rev. Mr. Maccarty, they took up their line of march to the scene of conflict." * 

The remarkable event to which the above reminiscence 
relates was appropriately commemorated in Worcester, yes- 
terday, April 19, by the dedication of an elegant and costly 
monument, erected to the memory of Timothy Bigelow 
by his great-grandson, Colonel T. Bigelow Lawrence of Bos- 
ton. It was the eighty-sixth anniversary of the battle of 
Lexington, — the opening scene of the Revolution. Our 
streets were early thronged with spectators. Many build- 
ings, private and public, were decorated with the national 
colors ; and every thing indicated a unanimous sentiment 
of devotion to the Union, and respect for the memory of its 
founders. 

The procession, preliminary to the exercises of the day, 
was formed at eleven o'clock, adjacent to the Central Park. 
Halting at the mansion of his honor Mayor Davis to receive 

* Lincoln's History of Worcester. 



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the invited guests and other distinguished citizens there 
assembled, its progress was resumed. In the first carriage 
were seated Mayor Davis, Colonel Lawrence, Tyler Bigelow, 
Esq., of Watertown (nephew and son-in-law of Colonel 
Timothy Bigelow), and George Tyler Bigelow, Jr., son of 
the Chief Justice. They were followed by a carriage con- 
taining Ex-Governor Lincoln, Rev. Dr. Bigelow, and Hon. 
John P. Bigelow, Ex-Mayor of Boston. The past Mayors of 
Worcester, and guests of the city, occupied the remaining 
carriages. The procession was arranged as follows : — 

National Band. 

Past and exempt Members of the Worcester Light Infantry, bearing the Colors of 

the Company; D. Waldo Lincoln, Captain. 

Highland Cadets. 

Committee of Arrangements. 

City Government. 

Invited Guests. 

.Toslyn's Band. 

Assistant Marshal. 

Chief-engineer Fire-department. 

Yankee Engine-company, No. 5. 

Ocean Hose-company, No. 2. 

Father Mathew Temperance Society. 

German Turners. 

Citizens. 

Altogether, the show was brilliant. Advancing through 
the central street, — Worcester's fair Broadway, beautifully 
draped, its sidewalks and houses filled with gazers, — the 
cortege moved on its line of march. The route was in 
the following order: through Main, Highland, Harvard, 
Chestnut, Elm, West, Pleasant Streets, to the head of Main 
Street again, thence to the Old Common ; completing tlie 
march about noon. 

At twelve o'clock, a salute of thirty-four guns was fired. 
The procession forming in a square around the stand, 
General George H. Ward, Chief-Marshal, announced Mayor 



9 



Davis as President of the day. Among the notabihties 
on the platform, besides the gentlemen elsewhere named, 
were the Hon. Rejoice Newton, Stephen Salisbury, Esq!, 
Hon. Dwight Foster, Hon. George F. Hoar, Major-General 
Hobbs, Colonel Stoddard, Charles Hersey, Esq., Walter 
Bigelow, Esq., Abbott Lawrence, Esq., with others. After 
a voluntary performed by Joslyn's Cornet Band, an appro- 
priate and impressive prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Hill. 
The following song, written for the occasion by C. Jillson, 
Esq., was next sung by the Glee Club, under the direction 
of Albert S. Allen, by whom the music was composed : — 

We come to-day, with solemn tread, 
To consecrate an earthly shrine. 
And raise this column o'er the head 
Of hero, patriot, and divine, — 
A hero in his country's cause ; 
A patriot on the lists of fame ; 
Divine, because an honest man 
Can justly own no other name. 

A thousand other men have died. 
Who toiled for fame, and sought renown ; 
But no one knows their resting-place, 
On hill, in valley, or the town. 
But here the humblest of them all 
Beneath this beauteous column lies : 
His dust has unto dust returned ; 
His spirit, to the upper skies. 

• Here, ages hence, when Spring-tiine comes 
AVith laughing footstep o'er the hills ; 
When Nature lifts her wintry hand 
From all the valleys and the rills, — 
Shall generations yet unborn 
Beside this marble column stand, 
And mingle with the dust their tears 
For one who loved his native land. 
2 



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Colonel Lawrence was then introduced, and spoke as 
follows : — 

Mat it please your Honor, — Actuated by the wish to per- 
petuate, in a suitable manner, the memory of one whose name 
has ever been reverently cherished by his descendants, I informed 
your Municipal Government a year and a half ago of my desire to 
erect a monument, upon your Central Park, over the remains of 
Colonel Timothy Bigelow. That desire Avas recognized in the kind- 
est manner by the prompt passage of a resolve authorizing the 
Mayor to set apart the lot in question, and to dedicate it for ever 
to this purpose. For the cordial response thus given, permit me 
now to return my most sincere thanks. The work is completed ; 
and, at the request of your citizens, I am here to consign it, in a 
formal manner, to the custody and safe-keeping of yourself and 
your successors. 

Little did I expect, however, to Avitness this imposing civic 
ceremonial, and the vast assemblage here collected. But I can- 
not be surprised, Avhen I remember that the regiment commanded 
by Colonel Bigelow, so distinguished for its gallantry and prowess 
on many of the hardest-fought fields of the Revolution, was re- 
cruited solely from the yeomanry of the county of Worcester ; 
and seeing as I do around me the descendants of the men who 
followed him to Cambridge, fought by his side under the walls of 
Quebec and on the plains of Saratoga and Monmouth, endured 
with him the trials and terrible sufferings of Valley Forge, and 
participated with him in the crowning glories of Yorktown. 

I feel that the tribute paid to-day, and on this anniversary, is 
not to the memory of one man alone, but to the Revolutionary 
sires of Worcester, — an ancestry of which Ave may Avell be 
proud. May I A^enture to hope, that, in the present dark and 
trying hour of our country's life, this monument may serAC to 
sustain and stimulate our patriotism, by recalling to memory the 
public spirit, the courage and the sacrifices, so nobly displayed 
for the cause of liberty during the Revolution, I)y the soldiers of 
the gallant old Fifteenth Regiment of the Continental Line ! 



11 

Mayor Davis responded as follows : — 

Colonel Timothy Bigelow Lawrence : Sir, — You have caused 
to be erected on our Central Park a monument to the memory 
of one who was foremost among the c/tizens of this place in the 
great acts of the American Revolution. 

This civic procession, this large concourse of people, are as- 
sembled here to commemorate your generosity to the memory 
of one of those heroes of the American Revolution. This very 
moment — as you have well said, sir — and this very occasion 
should admonish us to rally in support of the principles, to 
express anew our admiration of the character, and our gratitude 
for the lessons of wisdom and patriotism, bequeathed to us by 
those who fought the battles of the Revolution, and laid the 
foundation of our liberties. They are fixed stars in the firma- 
ment of great names ; shining, without twinkling, with a clear 
and beneficent light. 

Sir, allow me, as the chief executive officer of this city, in 
behalf of all its citizens, to thank you sincerely for this splendid 
tribute to the memory of one of our bravest and most cherished 
citizens. With great pleasure, I accept, in behalf of the city, 
the custody of this chaste and magnificent monument, which will 
for ever mark the spot where repose the remains of Colonel Timo- 
thy Bigelow. To him and his associates — who, at the expense 
of treasure, a contempt for peril, a prodigality of blood as pure as 
ever flowed from mortals, of which we can form no adequate 
conception — we owe a debt of gratitude for giving liberty and 
equality to this nation. You, sir, with a noble liberality, have 
placed over the grave of your ancestor a memorial which will 
commemorate his heroic virtues till the last succession of earth's 
inhabitants. 

My poor thanks for this act of your munificence are weak and 
feeble when compared Avith the untold thousands who shall here- 
after gaze upon this structure, and breathe forth their thankful- 
ness to him who so nobly commemorated the deeds of the mighty 
dead. 



12 



Eighty-six years ago this day, news reached this place that the 
British were on their march to Concord to destroy the military 
stores in that place. Captain Timothy Bigelow instantly assem- 
bled his company near the spot where Ave are now standing, and 
marched with all possible .despatcli to meet the enemy. This was 
the beginning of the Kevolution. 

When Washington, the Father of liis Country, arrived at Cam- 
bridge, and took the command of the American troops, he re- 
vicAved them by companies. Having reviewed the company of 
Captain BigeloAv, he remarked to him, " This is discipline indeed." 
In 1775-6, he was Major under General Arnold in the expedition 
against Quebec, in Avhich the hardships and sufferings of the army 
mock all description. He commanded the Fifteenth Continental 
Regiment at the capture of Burgoyne and other battles. He was 
a member of the Provincial Congress. He continued in the public 
service till the independence of the Colonies Avas established. 
He returned to his native place, poor in property, but ricli in 
honor. His descendants have done much to sustain and perpetu- 
ate the liberties he fought to establish ; and noAV, after more than 
seven decades of years since his death, a great-grandson of the 
deceased, prompted by noble feelings of patriotism, Avith princely 
liberality, has erected o\er the remains of his heroic and patri- 
otic ancestor a monument Avorthy of the good and great man. 
As the friends of liberty in all coming time shall look on it and 
read its inscriptions, it Avill call to their minds a genoratiou of 
heroic, brave, and noble men, avIio pledged their lives, their for- 
tunes, and their sacred honor, in the great cause of freedom, 
equality, and brotherhood. In behalf of all the friends of liberty, 
I again thank you for this act of your munificence. 

The venerable Ex-Governor Lincoln was next intro- 
duced, as one who had a distinct personal recollection of 
Colonel Bigelow. He said, — 

Mr. Mayor, — In respectful submission to your authority, I 
ansAver to your call, that I may sIioav by my presence here, ratlier 



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than by any speech, the deep personal interest which I feel in this 
occasion, and my respect and reverence for the character of him, 
whose public services this costly and beautiful structure, before 
which we now stand, and these imposing observances in which Ave 
have engaged, are designed to commemorate. In the dedication 
of the monument by fervent prayer and thanksgiving ; by the ex- 
pressive and touching address of our noble friend, whose abounding 
munificence, prompted by a sense of filial duty, and a just pride 
of ancestry, has placed it upon these consecrated grounds, commit- 
ting it forever, for preservation and care, to the gratitude of the city ; 
and with your ofiicial response, so appropriate and so eloquent, 
in behalf of your fellow-citizens, and as their authorized representa- 
tive, gracefully acknowledging the benefaction and accepting the 
trust, — the purpose for which we assembled, seems to me, to have 
been most fully and happily accomplished. I know not what more 
the proprieties of the occasion could demand. For myself, I have 
nothing, of word or of thought, which can add to the satisfactions 
of the hour ; nor, if I would, have I the strength, or the voice, to 
reach the listening ear of this thronging multitude. And yet, sir, 
as you have kindly said, it may be expected of me — one of the 
few, the very few, of the living, who have ever looked upon the 
person of Colonel Bigelow — that I should give such reminiscences 
of him as I have, imperfect and unimportant though they be. A 
little longer, and there will be none to utter these personal remem- 
brances. 

My impressions of Colonel Bigelow are such only, as are made 
upon the mind of a child, in the presence of mature and perfect 
manhood. From family connection, there was frequent inter- 
course and association between him and those of my own kindred ; 
and I well recollect, as though it were of yesterday, his general 
appearance, — his tall, erect, and commanding figure, his martial 
air, his grave and rather severe countenance, his dignified and 
earnest address. I cannot doubt the respect and deference with 
which he was universally regarded ; for it was among the most 
positive injunctions of the antiquated district schoolmistress to the 
boys of my day, enforced even by the fear of the rod, that we 



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should always " pull off our hats to Parson Bancroft and Colonel 
Bigelow." At the time of his death,, and for many years after, I 
often heard him spoken of as the gallant old soldier, and the 
thoroughly accomplished officer ; and now, after the lapse of 
seventy-one years from his burial, in the same vernal season 
of the fragrance of the budding tlower, and the gushing melody of 
birds, I stand, an aged man, again at his grave, to remember and 
to honor him. 

I know of no record of the life of Colonel Bigelow which even 
approaches the character of a biography. In Lincoln's " History 
of "Worcester " is contained, probably, the best notice of him which 
can be found ; but this, from the more general object of the work, 
and the time when it was prepared, is necessarily stinted and 
meagre. It is there related, that, " with a taste for military life, 
he was deeply skilled in the science of war ; " that " the troops 
under his command and instruction, exhibited the highest condition 
of discipline ; " and of his regiment, that " a braver band never 
took the field, or mustered to battle. High character for intre- 
pidity and discipline, early acquired, was maintained unsullied to 
the close of their service ;" and, " when Colonel Bigelow left mili- 
tary life, it was with the reputation of a meritorious officer." 

The accomplished and eminent historian Bancroft, in enume- 
rating the forces sent against Quebec in the autumn of 1775, 
names among the officers of rank "■ Timothy Bigelow, the early 
patriot of Worcester." 

These testimonials to the merits and services of Colonel Bigelow 
have the singular and affecting coincidence of having been rendered 
by the sons of two of his most distinguished fellow-townsmen, 
associates, and friends, — the elder Lincoln, and the elder Ban- 
croft. How simple and appropriate these tributes to his worth ! 
how beautiful this brief summary of his character ! how suggestive 
of the virtues alike of the civilian and the soldier ! Timothy 
Bigelow, the early patriot of Worcester, — a braver man never 
took the field, or mustered to battle. High character for intrepidity 
and discipline early acquired, and maintained unsullied through 
seven years' militai-y service, — what more pertinent inscription 



15 



for his tombstone? — tributes of cotemporaneous renown, trans- 
ferred from " the fleshly tables of the heart" to the ever-enduring 
marble of the monument. 

Colonel Bigelow was a type of a generation, now passed away. 
Of such, in patriotism and valor, were the corps of Minute Men 
under his command, and the Train Band of the brave Capt. Ben- 
jamin Flagg, who alike, on the 19th of April, 1775, of which this 
day is the anniversary, at the horseman's cry, " To arms ! " 
hastened, with no delay but for prayer and a benediction, to join 
their brethren of Lexington and Concord in resistance to tyranny 
and the oppressor's sword. Such was the townsman and friend 
of Bigelow, the intrepid and beloved Capt. Jonas Hubbard, his 
inferior only in rank, his companion and comrade in the dreadful 
winter's march through the wilderness to the siege of Quebec ; 
who, in the midst of hardships and privations almost unequalled 
in the experience of human suffering, uttered the noble declara- 
tion, " I do not value life or property, if I may secure liberty for 
my children ; " and who, when mortally wounded, at the foot of 
the ramparts, in the storming of the fortress, said to his men who 
sought to remove him from the field, " I came to fight with you : 
I will stay here to die with you." Such too, at this time, are the 
gallant young men of our own city and state, who, with alacrity, 
on the first summons, have buckled on the armor, in defence of all 
which is dear to freemen. Oh, that now — now, in this most poi-- 
tentous and perilous crisis of our country's destiny — there were 
men like these, in all ixtrts of this land, to uphold this nation ; to 
defend and protect the Government and its institutions ; to pre- 
serve, and transmit to posterity, those great political, civil, and 
social privileges and blessings which the present generation re- 
ceived and have enjoyed, as an inheritance, through the wisdom, 
and patriotism, and valor, of the founders of the Republic ! They 
were, indeed, men of stern integrity and public virtue, of elevated 
aim and lofty principle, unselfish and self-sacrificing ; with whom, 
a sense of honor was not lost in personal ambition, nor fidelity to 
duty sunk in subservience to party ; men devoted to the people's 
service, and the country's welfare. 



16 



May this monument, erected to the honor of one of Liberty's 
noblest sons, instruct us in the priceless value of the glorious 
achievements of our ancestors ! May it be made admonitory to 
our own high duties and momentous responsibilities ! — so that 
the disruption of our national Union, if dissevered it must be, 
shall never become a reproach to our supineaess or indifference, 
nor the destruction of our liberties be brought about, by our de- 
basement, or our follies. 

At the close of Governor Lincoln's address, the chairman 
called for a speech from the Rev. Andrew Bigelow, D.D., 
of Boston, grandson of the old Colonel. Dr. Bigelow rose, 
and said, — 

Mr. Mayok and Gentlemen, — In compliance Avith your 
call, I cannot Avithhold a word, chiefly to express the emotions of 
gratitude shared by me in common with other descendants of an 
ancestor whose monument is this day publicly dedicated, in view 
of the honors paid to his memory by yourselves in your official 
capacity, and the citizens at large of this great outpouring com- 
munity. I am touched, profoundly touched, by such tokens of 
respect to the name and character of one, who, distinguished as he 
w^as in his day, has been separated from the present living age by 
the space of two entire generations. 

Threescore years and ten — nay, eleven — have passed away 
since his ashes were laid to rest where they have quietly rejiosed 
in their late humble but not forgotten sepulchre ; during which 
period, new races have sprung into active and stirring life, and 
Worcester, the beautiful village of his time, has grown up to its 
present expansion, — a teeming hive of Avealth and industry, — a 
fair and flourishing, a rich and populous city.* But the demonstra- 
tions of this day, this hour, attest that his memory still lives, — 
green in the hearts of a people who have come after, and that it 
is still cherished with filial and affectionate veneration. 

* lliitre pulcliia Filia pulclirioi-. 



17 



Yet, in honoring liim, the heroic dead, Worcester, though un- 
consciously, honors herself. He, Colonel Bigelow, was her own 
child. Here he was born and bred ; here he lived and moved 
and wrought, — never absent from his native precincts, save at his 
country's call to other fields and less lovely scenes ; and here, at 
length, he died, — bowed not so much by the weight of years, as the 
waste and wear, the toils, hardships, and suiferiugs, endured in 
the same sacred cause. He was a type, a noble type indeed, of the 
gallant spirits here in Worcester who rose cotemporaneously with 
himself. Sparta, we forget not, had other sons than he ; but 
none, — I dare hope for your ready assent in claiming, — none 
more worthy than himself. His enthusiasm — springing from the 
impulses of a warm, generous nature, dauntless as it was wise, 
thoughtful, and prescient — quickened, no doubt, to a brighter glow 
the flame of patriotism in many sympathetic breasts ; and, whilst 
firing the brave, it roused the torpid, nerved the weak, and embold- 
ened the timid. The force of his character — from all which I 
have heard and have been able to learn of its weight and influence, 
confirmed by the testimonies so emphatically and eloquently borne 
by my honored friend, the Nestor who has last addressed you — 
was such as could not fail to impress itself upon all within the 
reach of its spell. It reminds me of a saying left on record from 
an earlier age, of Thomas Randolph to Cecil, Lord Burleigh, 
during the stormy crisis of the Scottish Reformation, alluding 
to the fiery energy of the brave, indomitable old John Knox : 
" Where your honor exhorteth us to stoutness of heart, I assure 
you the voice of one man is able, in an hour, to put more life in 
our souls than six hundred trumpets continually blustering in our 
ears." 

This much may be accorded to the worth of a progenitor whose 
marble on yonder mound denotes the last resting-place of his 
earthly remains ; but the marble itself (as has been so justly and 
so modestly intimated by my young kinsman, in his opening 
address), — the marble itself, the Monument this day consecrated, 
stands, and will remain to future generations, a memorial, not 
alone of his personal services and prowess, but of the public spirit, 

3 



18 



the unflinching bravery, the self-sacrificing patriotism, of those 
sires in common, his fellow-townsmen, — the men, co-eval with 
himself, who joined heart and hand in the days which emphatically 
" tried men's souls." 

But, sir, the times we are thrown upon — sad to say — may 
prove quite as momentous in experience, and as memorable in 
coming history, as the era, long past, which we here commemorate. 
What was achieved by the stormy and victorious struggles of the 
Kevolutiou now remains to be preserved and defended. We have 
an enemy almost at our gates, an enemy crowding to our very 
borders, — a crafty and unscrupulous, a treacherous and insolent 
foe, — led on by a band of rebels and conspirators ; men false to 
their duty, their country, and to God, yet true to their traditions, 
the hereditary counterparts (worthy legatees) of the old toryism of 
1775-6 ; men whose fields and broad acres, whose fair plantations, 
were scoured and rid of a foreign oppressor by the bayonets of 
Northern men and Northern regiments. Yes, alas ! Ave have such 
an adversary at this hour to cope with, threatening not only our 
national liberty, but our national existence. Our country, mother 
of us all ; our country, dear weeping form, — daughter of strug- 
gle, born amidst conflicts, rocked by the storms and tempests of 
Revolutionary battle, — our Country turns, Avith anxious eye, to 
her offspring for help and succor in this dark hour of her un- 
looked-for extremity. And shall she turn and look to them in 
vain ? No, not here : no, not to Worcester. By the memories 
of the past, by the bones of her fathers, by the precious relics of 
the Chief Avhose valor is this day recalled, again do I say, No ! 
Let all other hearts faint and falter, those of Worcester Avill 
never droop nor quail. Her sons will be faithful and true. Al- 
ready she has sent forth an advance, now moving to the fight ; 
and others, all emulous, are eagerly mustering. A thousand 
SAvords are leaping from their scabbards. A thousand muskets 
are ready to be shouldered by her chivalrous youth, and borne to 
the embattled field, for their country's honor and avengement ; 
— never to be laid doAvn till the land itself shall be purged from 
the foul viperous brood too long and too indulgently hugged to its 



19 



bosom ; never to be laid doAvn till the black war-cloud now lower- 
ing upon onr land shall be triumphantly dispersed ; never to be 
laid down till not only Worcester, but Boston and Washington 
alike, with all the other aggrieved and insulted cities of our land, 
shall be shielded from the hazard of future menace and aggression. 
And then, but not till then, will Worcester's gallant sons again sit 
down beneath the laurels of a final and crowning victory. 

The Hon. John P. Bigelow, Ex-Mayor of Boston, another 
grandson of Colonel Timothy Bigelow, was next called up. 
He declined making a speech ; but, after some amusing 
and piquant remarks (roundly applauded), he presented to 
Mayor Davis, in behalf of the city, a package of a dozen 
ball-cartridges made for the regiment from Worcester and 
vicinity in the Revolutionary War, being a sample of those 
used at Still Water and Saratoga. He said he had tried 
some of the powder that very morning ; and it flashed 
brightly, after being kept eighty-four years. He knew of 
no more appropriate place of deposit for this Revolutionary 
relic than Worcester, so renowned for its patriotic and firm 
devotion to the principles of liberty and union. 

Hon. Benjamin F. Thomas was introduced as a grand- 
son of the political associate, cotemporary, and friend of 
Colonel Timothy Bigelow, Isaiah Thomas, senior. He 
spoke in substance as follows : — 

I thank you, Mr. Mayor and fellow-citizens, for this kindly 
greeting and welcome. I rejoice to look again on these familiar 
faces, and to hear once more the voices that stirred the blood 
of my early manhood. 

Mr. Mayor, it is good for us to be here. The place and the 
day are full of blessed memories. The noblest lessons of wisdom, 
of self-denial, and of self-sacrifice, come to lis from the grave of this 
" village blacksmith," sagacious statesman, prudent and gallant 



20 



commander, devoted patriot, — chevalier of nature, whose chivalry 
was illustrated in breaking, and not in forging, the chains of 
human bondage. Well may this beautiful monument crown his 
resting-place. Well may the gratitude, the mimificence, and the 
eloquence of his descendant, and the sympathies of this thronging 
multitude, unite to do him honor. Three generations come up to 
bless him. 

" How sleep the brave, who sink to rest 
With all their country's wishes blest! " 

Fellow-citizens, it is good for us to be here ; and here, by the 
graves of our fathers, — with their spirits hovering around us, a 
cloud of witnesses, — to give ourselves anew to the cause and to 
the country for which they nobly lived or nobly died. The day 
of trial has come again : it may be of darker, sterner, severer trial 
than that of our fathers. We are to save for our children 
what our fathers bought for us, and at the same price of toil, 
of treasure, and of blood. The cry to-day, in the streets of this 
beautiful city, is that which, eighty-six years ago, startled 
the quiet village, — " To arms ! " So be it. To arms ! The 
leaders of this accursed rebellion have appealed to the last 
arbitrament of States. It is Avell for us. The first gun that 
boomed against Sumter startled a great people from the grave 
of its lethargy as Avith the trump of the archangel. It was the 
beginning of the end. The bells that pealed in Charleston over 
the lowering of the Stars and Stripes rang out the death-knell 
of the " Southern Confederacy." 

It will cost us a long, severe, and bitter struggle ; but this 
rebellion must be utterly crushed out. There is for us no hope 
of freedom, of peace, of safety even, till this work is fully done. 
Seven years of Avar Avere spent in the purchase of our freedom ; 
seven more of toil in giving it organic and national life. If seven 
years of toil and blood are spent in securing it, — in our national 
redemption, — they Avill be wisely, divinely spent, Avith the blessing 
of God and all coming generations of men. Let us to-day, in 
God's name and in the name of humanity, dcA'ote ourselves to 
the Avork. 



21 



Judge Thomas having concluded, Tyler Bigelow, Esq., 
of Watertown, nephew of the Eevolutionary colonel, was 
last presented. His appearance produced a sensation. 
With the weight of eighty-three years upon his shoulders, 
he stood firm and erect as in manhood's early prime. His 
remarks, delivered with great energy, were feAv and pithy. 
He said, that, — 

So late was the hour, so fully had the exigencies of the occasion 
been met by the able and eloquent remarks and addresses of the 
gentlemen who had preceded him, he would not further exhaust 
the patience of his fellow-citizens, but forego any extended 
remarks he had contemplated. He wished simply to relate an 
interesting reminiscence, or anecdote, of his late uncle, which he 
had received many years since from a member of his family, 
.that would illustrate his character, and exhibit the spirit and 
ardor with which he entered upon and persevered in the great 
drama of the Revolution. 

When the news of the destruction of the tea in Boston Harbor 
reached Colonel Bigelow, he was at work in his blacksmith's shop, 
near the spot now called Lincoln Square. He immediately laid 
aside his tools, proceeded directly to his house, opened the closet, 
and took from it a canister of tea, went to the fireplace, and poured 
the contents thereof into the flames. As if feeling that every thing 
which had come in contact with British legislative tyranny should 
be purified by fire, the canister followed the tea ; and then he 
covered both with coals. So well known and determined were his 
opinions on the great questions of the day, he returned to his la- 
bors without deigning a word of explanation or apology to any 
one. — Such, also, was his zeal and ardor in the great cause of the 
times, that he appeared, on the morning following the battle of 
Lexington, at the head of his company of minute-men, on the public 
square in Wutertown, April 20 ; having marched them there, 
upwards of thirty miles, during the evening and night subsequent 
to that event. 



22 



Music by the band succeeded the address of the last- 
named speaker, — the Marseillaise being performed with 
admirable skill and effect. A benediction by the Rev. Dr. 
Hill concluded the public exercises of the day. 



The gentlemen specially invited to the dedication of the 
Monument were recipients in the morning of the hospitali- 
ties of His Honor Mayor Davis ; and, after the close of the 
ceremonies, were entertained at an elegant banquet given 
by Governor Lincoln. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



The Monument itself, of which the dedicatory ceremonial is re- 
corded in the foregoing pages, claims a notice. 

It occupies a conspicuous position at the northerly front of the 
ancient cemetery, — an inconsiderable but beautiful elevation, 
planted by trees, overlooking and now forming a part of the Cen- 
tral Park, better known as the Old Common, of Worcester. The 
spot of the original grave of Colonel Bigelow is included within 
the area allotted to the structure, some two or three yards to the 
right of the centre. It was necessarily disturbed by the alterations 
requisite in preparing and shaping the ground-plot for the edifice. 
The remains were carefully exhumed, incased in a metallic casket, 
and removed to their new receptacle beneath the base of the 
monument. 

They were found remarkably well preserved, considering the 
long period of their interment ; the hair, which was abundant, 
being in singular freshness. They indicated a tall and robust 
frame, above the average stature, correspondent with the tradi- 
tionary reports of the person of Colonel Bigelow, as having ex- 
ceeded six feet in height.* 

The site of the monument is a space of twenty feet to a side, 
enclosed with a light iron fence, on a granite plinth with trefoiled 
piers. From this, a slope of grass is formed to a solid block of 
granite, nine feet square, upon which the monument is erected. 

The design is in the style of the English Gothic of the thirteenth 
century, and the material is white Italian marble. The pedestal 
is ornamented at its angles with carvings of rams'-heads, and bears 
on its sides the following inscriptions : — 

* It has been described as six feet and two inches. 



26 



On the front, in raised capital letters, — 

TIMOTHY BIGELOW. 

On the right fiice, in sunken letters, — 

Born 
Aug. 12, 1730. 

Died 
Marcli 31, 17'JO. 

On the rear, — 

In memory of 

The Colonel of the 15th Massachusetts Reghnent 

Of the Continental Army 

In the War of Independence, 

This monument 

Is erected by his great-grandson, 

Timothy Bigelow Lawrence, 

Anno Domini 1861. 



On the left face are the words, — 



Quebec. 
Saratoga. 
Vaixey Forge. 



Monmouth. 
Verplanck's Point, 
yorktown. 



Above the pedestal, the monument diminishes in size ; but from 
each of its four sides trefoiled canopies project, supported on co- 
lumns whose capitals are elaborately carved with various designs, 
their bases resting on the shelving top of the pedestal. Above the 
canopies, the shaft again diminishes in size. It assumes an octa- 
gonal figure, and is surmounted with a foliated cross ; the total 
height being thirty feet. 

The monument was designed and superintended by George Snell, 
Esq., architect, of Boston. The granite work was executed by 
the Granite Railway Company ; and the marble, imported from 
Tuscany, was chiselled by Messrs. "Wentworth and Co., Boston. 



Such a structure, though a memorial of the past, is usually a 
custodian for the future. On the Friday previous to the celebra- 
tion (April 12), the customary formality took place of depositing 
sundry articles and documents, of more or less value, in the Bigelow 
Monument. It Avas performed in the presence of Mayor Davis 
and other city officials, of Ex-Governor Lincoln and distinguished 



2T 



citizens, besides several members of the Bigelow Family, specially 
represented in the lineal descent by Messrs. Andrew and John P. 
Bigelow, and Colonel Lawrence. The articles consigned were 
enclosed in a pair of strong, double boxes of tin and copper, 
firmly soldered, and placed beneath the marble base of the monu- 
ment. The latter (the base) is composed of four massive pieces, 
so constructed as to leave a central space between the block of 
granite on which the structure stands and the die of the pedestal 
surmounting it above. Within the cavity, the boxes were stored. 
Appended is a list of their contents : — 

A parchment containing the following i-ecord: "This monument, to the memory 
of Colonel Timothy Bigelow, a hero of the American Revolution, was erected 
by his great-grandson. Colonel Timothj' Bigelow Lawrence, of Boston, A.D. 1861. 
Isaac Davis, Mayor of the city of Woi-cester; John A. Andrew, Governor of 
Massachusetts ; Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. — George 
Snell, architect, Boston." 

History of Worcester. By William Lincoln. Published by Moses D. Phillips & 
Co., 1837. 

Reminiscences of the Military Life and Sufferings of Colonel Timothy Bigelow. 
By Charles Hersey. 

A plan of the old cemetery upon which the Bigelow Monument is erected. By 
Gill Valentine. 

History of the First Church (Old South) in the city of Worcester, this eleventh day 
of April, A.D. 1861; with its pastors and officers from its organization in 1716, 
and a catalogue of its members at the present time. By Caleb Dana. 

l^Lassachusetts Weekly Spy, vol. 90, No. 15, April 10, 1861. 

Three Daily Spys, vol. 16, Nos. 85, 86, 87, April 10, 11, 12. By J. D. Baldwin & 
Co., proprietors. 

M^\s and Transcript, vol. 24, No. 14. 

Daily Transcript, vol. 11, Nos. 81, 82, 83, April 9, 10, 11. By W. R. Hooper. 

Worcester Palladium, vol. 28, No. 15, April 10, 1861; and vol. 25, No. 51, con- 
taining interesting matter. By J. S. C. Knowlton. 

Worcester-County Democrat, vol. 1, No. 37, March 30, 1861. 

Worcester Daily Times, vol. 2, No. 60, April 3, 1861. By Moses Bates. 

Franklin Advertiser, vol. 1, No. 1, 1861, with specimens of beautiful cards. 

Worcester Directory for 1861. By Henry J. Howland. 

The Heai't of the Commonwealth. By Henry J. Howland. 

Daily Spy, Aug. 31, 1860; Home Statistics. By Samuel Smith. 

Massachusetts Spy, Sept. 26, 1860, containing the valuation and taxation of 
Worcester; census statistics of Worcester by wards; number of inhabitants, 
dwellings, and families; by Samuel Smith. 

A piece of the Charter Oak. 

Daily Spy of Feb. 12, 1861; Birth Statistics, containing the total number of births, 
number in each month, number of males and females, number of American and 
of foreign origin, with full particulars. By W. A. Brigham. 



28 



A package of ancient and modern relics; viz., the New-England-States cents, 
United-States cents and half-cents, Washington medals, Washington button, 
Massachusetts volunteer militia and infantry buttons. By W. A. Brigham. 

Medal of President Lincoln, and one of Hon. John Davis. 

City Document, No. 14: Inaugural Address of Hon. W. W. Rice, Mayor of the city 
of Worcester, Jan. 2, 1860; with the annual reports of the several city officers 
for the municipal year ending Jan. 2, 1861. 

Inaugural Address of Hon. Isaac Davis, Mayor of the city of Worcester, to the City 
Council, Jan. 1, 1861. 

Report of the School Committee of the city of Worcester for the year 1860. By 

Rev. J. D. E. Jones, superintendent of schools. 
A beautiful steel engraving of the Worcester Hospital; likewise a large document 

containing the records of the founders, and names of all the officers, of the 

institution, from the commencement to the present time. Bv Merrick Bemis, 

M.l). 

Journal of the Prince of Wales's tour in America in 1860, by G. D. Engleheart, Esq., 
secretary of the Duke of Newcastle. 

Printed pedigree of the Bigelow Family. 

Appleton's Railway and Steam-navigation Guide, published in New York and Lon- 
don ; American Weekly Traveller, Boston, April 13, 1861; Boston Semiweekly 
Advertiser, April 13, 1861; Boston Herald, April 12, 1861; Boston Courier, 
April 12, 1861; Daily Atlas and Bee, April 12, 1861; Boston Journal, April 
12, 1861; Boston Daily Advertiser, April 12, 1861; New- York Times, April 11, 
1861; New- York Herald, April 11, 1861; New-York Independent, April 11, 
1861; Home (weekly) Journal, New York, April 13, 1861; Vanity Fair, do., 
New York, April 13, 1861; Harpers' Monthly, New York, April 13, 1861. 

Coins of United States, one dollar, half a dollar, quarter of a dollar, ten-cent piece, 
five-cent piece, two three-cent pieces, three one-cent pieces, 1860, one cent of 
1861. 

Ball cartridges made by the soldiers of Colonel Bigelow's command, at his barn in 

Worcester, 1777. 
Lock of the hair of Colonel Timothy Bigelow. 



Also the following original manuscript letters of Colonel Bige- 
low : — 

Oct. 25, 1775. 
On that part of the Kennybeck called the Dead Kiver, 
95 miles above Norridgewalk. 

Dear Wife, — I am at this time well, but in a dangerous situation, as is the 
whole detachment of the Continental Army with me. We are in a wilderness, nearlv 
one hundred miles from any inhabitants, either French or English; and but about 
five days' provisions, on an average, for the whole. We are this day sending back 
the most feeble, and some that are sick. If the French are our enemies, it will go 
hard with us ; for we have no retreat left. In that case, there will be no other alter- 
native between the sword and famine. May God, in his infinite mercy, protect you 
my more than ever dear wife and my dear children I 

Adieu ! — and ever believe me to be your most affectionate husband, 

TiMo. Bigelow. 



29 



Chaudiek Pond, Oct. 28, 1775. 

Dear Anna, — I very much regret my writing tiie last letter to j'ou, the con- 
tents were so gloomy. It is true, our provisions are short (only five pints of flour to 
a man, and no meat); but we have this minute received news that the inhabitants 
of Canada are all friendlj', and very much rejoiced at our coming, and a very small 
number of troops in Quebec. We have had a very fatiguing march of it; but I 
hope it will soon be over. The express is waiting; therefore must conclude. 

I am, dear wife, with unlimited aftection, your faithful husband, 

TiMO. BiGELOW.* 



The documents subjoined pertaining to the earlier history of the 

Monument have an importance entithng them to a place in this 

connection : — 

City of Worcester, 
[seal.] In City Council, Dec. 23, 1859. 

Resolved, That leave be granted to Timothy Bigelow Lawrence to 
erect a Monument over the remains of Colonel Timothy Bigelow ; and 
that the Mayor be empowered to designate a suitable lot for that purpose, 
where the said remains now lie, — the same not to include the remains of 
persons of any other family ; and that said lot be for ever appropriated 
and devoted to said purpose. 

A copy of record. — Attest: Samuel Smith, City Clerk. 



CITY or WORCESTER. 

Whereas, by a resolve of the City Council, passed Dec. 23, A.D. 1859, 
leave was granted to Timothy Bigelow LaAvrence to erect a Monument 
over the remains of Colonel Timothy Bigelow ; and, by said resolve 
the Mayor was empowered to designate a suitable lot for that purpose, 



* Beautiful as is the monument to the memory of Colonel Bigelow, a loftier and 
more durable one stands in the State of Maine. It is a moimtain bearing his name 
near the head of the Kennebec, a few miles distant froin the place of encampment 
recorded under date of the former of the two letters printed above. He was the 
first white man who ascended it. It was for purposes of exploration, when in 
command of a detachment of Arnold's army en route to Quebec, as intimated in 
the same letters. There was, of course, no chart of the wilderness. The pathless 
forest lay beyond. It was important to ascertain the character of the reo-ion and 
the trending of the great natural landmarks, in advance. Colonel Bigelow (then a 
Major) undertook, sua sponie, whilst his troops were halting at the foot of a steep 
mountain, its laborious ascent. It is a towering and rugged eminence, or rather the 
apex of an alpine range, difficult to climb at the present day. Few attempt it. 

The achievement of Colonel Bigelow was thought so remarkable, that the peak 
was called and afterwards fam.iliarly known as Bigelow's mountain. The name of 
Mount Bigelow was thence introduced into our maps, and, extended since to the 
entire ridge, is stamped in memoriam. 



30 



where said remains now lie, — the same not to include the remains of per- 
sons of any other family ; and it was further resolved, that said lot be 
for ever appropriated and devoted to said purpose : — 

Now, in pursuance of the authority in me so vested, I, Alexander H. 
Bullock, Mayor of the city of Worcester, have designated, and do hereby 
designate, for the purpose aforesaid, the following-described lot, being 
twenty feet square, and being section number four of the second division, 
as laid down on the plan of the cemetery on the Common, dated October, 
1853, made by Gill Valentine. Said section has a stone monument at 
its south-east corner, and contains grave number seven, being the grave 
of Timothy Bigelow, but does not include the remains of any other per- 
son. 

And I hereby for ever dedicate and appropriate said lot to the purpose 
aforesaid. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and affixed the seal 
of the city of Worcester, this thirtieth day of December, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine. 

A. H. Bullock, Mayor, [seal.] 



The following officials constituted a Committee, on the part of 
the City Government of Worcester, to take action on the measures 
deemed suitable for a public notice, by inaugural exercises, at the 
erection of the Bigelow Monument ; viz. : — 

His Honor Jhiyor Davis; Messrs. George Hobbs and Charles B. Pratt, Aldermen; 
Messrs. Walter Bigelow, Frank H. Kelley, and M. S. McConville, Councilinen. 

Annexed are the names of twenty-five gentlemen, chosen by the 
citizens at large to co-operate with the Committee of the Munici- 
pal Government in making arrangements for a due observance of 
the occasion aforesaid ; viz. : — 

Hon. Levi Lincoln, Chairman; Messrs. Stephen Salisbury, A. H. Bullock, Rejoice 
Newton, J. S. C. Knowlton, George F. Hoar, Henry Cliapin, George W. Kicliardson, 
W. W. Eice, Gen. George H. Ward, Dr. George Chandler, Fitzroy Willard, T. L. 
Nelson, H. N. Tower, Charles Hersey, Rev. Dr. Hill, Rev. Horace James, Albert 
Tolman, Joseph Mason, F. H. Kinnicutt, William A. Wheeler, John M. Goodhue, 
Edwin Bynner, Carter Whitcomb, George W. Bentlej'. 



It was at first proposed by the Committee of Arrangements that 
an oration should be delivered on the day of celebration, and that a 



31 



suitable gentleman l)e invited to perform the office. The Hon, 
George Bancroft, of New York, was selected, and addressed on the 
subject. Tlie following is the correspondence which passed : — 

Worcester, Mass., March 22, 1861. 
Hon. George Bancroft. 

My dear Sir, — You are probably informed, that, Avith the consent of 
the authorities of this city, T. Bigelow Lawrence, Esq., a great-grandson 
of Colonel Timothy Bigelow of Revolutionary fame, is about to erect a 
monument to the memory of his ancestor on the site of his grave, in the 
old burial-ground near the Common. This act of filial duty and reverence 
is proposed to be celebrated by impressive and appropriate ceremonies, in 
which the government and citizens of the place will unite with Colonel 
Lawrence, on the 19th of April next, — the anniversary of the battle of 
Lexington. The monument, when in position, will be a costy and beautiful 
structure, worthy its commemorative purpose, and greatly ornamental to 
the city. At a meeting of a large Committee of Arrangements for the 
occasion, it was the spontaneous and unanimous expression of desire, that 
you should be solicited to add that interest to the day, by an address, to 
which no one else could so effectually contribute. It seems to them to be 
a service most eminently becoming your friends and fellow-citizens of your 
native town earnestly to ask from you. Born in their midst ; cherished, 
loved, and honored by them, not only in your own person, but in the 
memory of your father, — long their instructor and guide, — they would 
see, in your compliance with their wishes, renewed cause of obligation and 
grateful regard. Besides, as the eminent historian of the country, will 
you not give the seal of your recognition to the services of one of its most 
heroic defenders ? 

The Committee will be greatly obliged by an answer at your earliest 
convenience. 

With faithful esteem and respect, your obedient servant, 

Levi Lincoln, 

In behalf of, and by the unanimous request of, the Committee. 

New York, March 25, 1861. 
My dear Sir, — I am to-day made very happy by your assurance, that 
the great affection I bear my native town is met by an honorable place in 
their regard ; but neither my health nor my engagements will permit me 
to be with you on the 19th of April, though I heartily join in every tri- 
bute to the sons of liberty in Worcester, who were by none exceeded in 
their devotion to the cause of liberty and their country. 

Very truly, and with affectionate respect, your obliged, 

Geokge Bancroft. 
Governor Lincoln. 



32 



In consequence of the disappointment to secure the presence and 
eloquent voice of Mr. Bancroft on the occasion jiroposed, and the 
brief interval remaining before tlie time fixed for tlic dedication of 
the Monument, other arrangements were made by the Committee, 
and the plan of celebration adopted which was carried out in the 
manner and form detailed in previous pages. 



Allusion is made in an antecedent page, at the introduction of 
the name of Judge Thomas, one of the speakers of the day, 
to the friendship wliich subsisted between his ancestor, the elder 
Isaiah Thomas, and the subject of these notices. It was, indeed, 
a close and tried one. They were " true yoke-fellows ; " each 
alike active in defence of a common cause, — the rights of the 
people, and the liberties of the old Colonies. They employed dif- 
ferent weapons, — one wielding the sword; the other a pen, of 
scarce less potency in the popular movement. 

Colonel Bigelow was the senior of Mr. Thomas by nearly ten 
years. An ardent AVhig, foremost of the elite of Worcester in op- 
position to the tyranny of the British Crown, and of course to the 
little clique of Tories, not wanting in the town, — few in number, 
but swelling in self-conceit, looking down on the people as a ple- 
beian class, — Colonel Bigelow cast about for auxiliaries to aid in 
the work of unflinching resistance. A press Avas needed. Mr. 
Thomas, then editor and proprietor of the " Massachusetts Spy," 
printed in Boston, was invited to Worcester. He had been 
placed on the hon(n'able list of tlie '' .suspects ; " and, in the early 
spring of 1775, was proscribed. lie was compelled to flee ; the 
last number of his paper, in Boston, being issued April 6, 1775. 
Mr. Thomas gladly availed himself of the proffered shelter and 
stand presented by the eligible opening at Worcester. The removal 
of his press and types was an affair of some difficulty, requiring 
caution in the management. Colonel Bigelow imdertook the task. 
With the aid of a couple of assistants, choosing a dark night, the 
press with its materiel was secured by him, and, conveyed to a land- 
ing near Barton's Point, was ferried to Charlestown. Thence trans- 
ported to Worcester, it was set up and worked, at the beginning, in 
a basement-room of X\\v Colonel's house. The first appearance of 
the ''Spy" next after, and therewith the first printing executed in 



33 



Worcester, was on the 3d of May next following. The paper proved, 
as before, an instrument of mighty energy, acting as a powerful lever 
on the sentiment and spirit of the times. Subscriptions floAved in. 
A suitable office was shortly obtained, and the sheet, under its new 
title of the " Massachusetts Spy, or American Oracle," was spread 
abroad everywhere. Its tone lost none of its boldness. The 
loyalists gained nothing from their prior attempts to muzzle and 
to silence it. It spoke like a trumpet. The weekly articles by 
its conductor were impatiently awaited by the public, and read 
Avith avidity. The name of Isaiah Thomas, as the exponent of 
his paper, soon became, throughout New England, familiar as a 
" household word ; " and the Worcester Massachusetts Spy re- 
mains to this day, as at the outset of its career, the faithful 
"oracle" of the rights asserted and the principles maintained by 
both its original publisher, and his confidential friend and coadju- 
tor. Colonel Bigelow. 

Following upon the arrival of the press in Worcester, a bright, 
burly boy, or rather a stout, vigorous youth, apprenticed to Mr. 
Thomas, appeared, — the late Benjamin Russell, afterwards famil- 
iarly known as " Major Ben," of the Boston " Columbian Centinel," 
— a man who attained to a distinguished and honorable position in 
the community ; whose newspaper, like that of his famous master, 
acquired at a later day, and long exerted, a wide and commanding 
influence ; and who lived to become the veteran of the craft, as 
personally he ever was a bright and shining ornament of his pro- 
fession. 

Young Russell was made an inmate of the fiimily of Colonel 
Bigelow, where he found a welcome home, and was treated with 
the regard and affection of a child and brother. 

Between him and the eldest son of the Colonel — also conspi- 
cuous in another Avalk, in after-life, as an eminent lawyer (the 
Hon. Timothy Bigelow, of Groton and Medford) — a warm attach- 
ment sprung up, which ripened subsequently into the closest 
intimacy, never broken, never jarred, till the death of the latter 
severed the tie. Mr. Bigelow deceased in 1821, at the com- 
paratively early age of fifty-four. Major Russell survived to be 
an octogenarian. He was several years older than his friend. 



34 



An anecdote is told by the Rev. Andrew Bigelow, illustrative of 
the impression made on a stranger by the personal appearance and 
bearing of his gi-andfather, the Colonel, when in the prime of man- 
hood. His informant was an aged parishioner, smwiving a few 
months after the date of Dr. Bigelow's settlement in Tavmton, neai-ly 
thirty years ago, — a man of bright memory, naturally of a cool, 
observant mind, and who dwelt much on the reminiscences of earlier 
days. At his first interview with his pastor, the old gentleman 
inquired of the latter if he had an ancestor in the Revolutionary 
Army, — an officer of the Massachusetts Line. Being satisfied on 
those points, he was asked, in turn, the special reason of liis queries. 
" Guess I have seen him," was the reply. " When and where ? " 
next followed. Shaking the ashes from his pipe, as he sat in a 
big chair beside the chimney-comer, the old man said, " Well, you 
must suppose, that after the fight at Lexington, when the milish was 
called out, Ave all wanted to know what chaps they were to face the 
enemy, — them ' redcoats,' as Ave called the regulars, — in case of 

more scuffling. So I said to neighbor , (Sam was his given 

name,) ' Let us tackle up, and go and see the felloAvs about Bos- 
ton'" — (a la " Capt. Goodwin"). '^ He agreed, and A\'e liitched 
team, and started off". We Avent to Cambridge, saAV Wai'd's camp, 
and fetched up at WatertoAvn. Our Congress (Provincial), they 
told us, was sitting there, then. 

" Next morning, standing outside the tavern, many people coming 
and going, I spied a couple of otficers Avalking iip. One of them 
was a tall man, stepping very handsome ; had a firm, quick gait, 
and no SAvagger. He was speaking to the other quite earnest, and 
looked, somehow, serious." — " Tall, you say ? " — " Yes : h6 Avas a 
six-footer, and something more ; carried himself sti'aight ; Avas 
broad-chested, not spare. I remember he Avas rather dark-co7?i- 
pleded, but with a good brown color on his cheeks ; his haii* a jet- 
black, very full, and clubbed behind, — the fasliion of those times." 
— " Any thing more ? " — " Well, I Avatched his eyes : they Avere 
very bright ; blackish, or tliereabouts ; saAv them plain, as he passed 
by and Avont into the house." — " And Avhat of his companion ? " — 
"Don't remember," said the old man ; " nothing particular about 
him. When they had got in, I asked a countryman, standing by, 
Avho that tall officer was. He said, ' Major Bigelow : Major Bige- 
loAv of Worcester.' I looked at friend Sam. He eyed me mighty 
shar]). T km-w wliat lie wanted: so I told liim tlie name of the 



oo 



gentleman. ' Well, neighbor Jo,' said he, ' what think you of that 
big fellow ? ' " — The old man stopped in his narrative (he was slow 
of speech), gave another nudge to the bowl of his pipe, lifted his 
eyebrows as if the distant scene, neighbor Sam and all, were again 
before him, then turned to his listener, and concluded : "I told 

Sam , ' Sam,' says I, ' that man loill fight: — 'Guess so, too,' 

said Sam, ' right smart.' " * 



« »»»i > 



The honors paid to the memory of Colonel Timothy Bigelow, 
by the public celebration held at the dedication of his Monument, 
were no barren formalities, restricted to the grateful recognition 
of a venerated name. Occurring at a crisis the most momentous 
in our national annals since the War of Independence, when all 
that was gained by the triumphs of the Revolution was suddenly 
and wickedly imperilled, they combined, with the traditionary 
reminiscences awakened, to lend a deeper and more powerful im- 
pulse to the indignant spirit of patriotism then stirred afresh among 
the citizens of Worcester and its neighborhood. 

By a communication before us from His Honor Mayor Davis, 
under date of Sept. 27, in which he states that "the Monu- 
ment has attracted great attention, and thousands, and tens of 
thousands, have visited it," we learn " that it has excited in nu- 
merous minds a noble spirit of patriotism, and has induced many 
to volunteer in sustaining the Constitution and the Union. Since 
the Monument (he adds) was erected on our Central Park, more 
than five thousand men have left that Park in defence of the glo- 
rious institutions which Colonel Timothy Bigelow and his brave 
compeers fought to establish." 

When addressing the officers and soldiers of the Fifteenth Regi- 
ment of Massachusetts Volunteers, a few weeks previously, near 
the grave of Colonel Bigelow, we gather also, from an animated 
report which has reached us, that His Honor invoked the troops 
in fervid strains " to imitate the self-sacrificing, the noble daring, 
the heroic spirit, of Colonel Timothy Bigelow and his brave asso- 
ciates of the Fifteenth Continental Regiment of the Revolution." 



* The Colonel came of a fighting stock. His father, Daniel Bigelow, one of the 
original settlers of Worcester, was a soldier in the Canadian-French War. 



36 



" If," said the Mayor, with a thrilling emphasis, — " if that va- 
liant Colonel and his comrades, who now sleep near us, could hear 
your martial tramp, it would be music in their ears ; and me- 
thinks their immortal spirits are looking down from the battlements 
of heaven, beckoning you on to sustain and uphold the liberties 
which they fought to secure." 

Again : at the presentation of a beautiful stand of colors, from the 
ladies of "Worcester, to the Fifteenth Regiment of Volunteers, on 
the 8th of August, the Hon. George F. Hoar, who spoke in their 
behalf, when tendering the gift to the colonel and officers of the 
corps, introduced his speech by saying, — 

" I am deputed by the ladies of "Worcester to present to you this banner. 
Eighty-four years ago to-day, there was mustering in these streets the 
fii-st regiment ever raised in Worcester County for actual warfare, — 
the Fifteenth Regiment of the Massachusetts Line. AVhat hard-fought 
fields at Monmouth and Trenton, what sufl'erings at Valley Forge, what 
glory and victory at Saratoga and Yorktown, have made that name famous, 
history has recorded ; and now that, for the second time, Worcester 
County sends out to battle a full regiment of her sons, by a coincidence 
too appropriate to be called accident, the name which your fathers ren- 
dered illustrious has been allotted to you. What they won for us, it is 
yours to preserve for us." 

Colonel Charles Devens, jun., in receiving the colors, responded 
with deep feeling in like stirring and sympathetic strains : — 

"There is, indeed, a remarkable coincidence, as you have so well said, 
in the name of the regiment which I have the honor to command ; being 
numbered the same as that commanded, during the Revolutionary War, 
by Colonel Timothy Bigelow, over whose remains yonder proud monu- 
ment was three months ago erected with such inspiring ceremonies. It is, 
indeed, a most fortunate omen. I trust that some of the spirit which 
animated our ancestors has descended upon the present sons of Worcester 
County, and that they will be able to render an equally good account of 
their labors. I know they stand ready to defend that flag, as much dearer 
than life as honor is dearer ; that they will ' not suff'er a single star to be 
obscured, or a single stripe erased,' from that glorious symbol of our na- 
tional union. I am unable to predict as to our return ; yet this symbol 
shall be returned to the ladies of Worcester untarnished. Defeat, dis- 
aster, and death may come to us ; but dishonor, never." 

Eloquent words, and nobly answered ; as witnessed by the sub- 
sequent intrepid bearing of the heroic colonel and the regiment 



37 



under his command, — a regiment which, whilst inheriting the 
prestige of the name, most worthily asserts its title to the distinc- 
tion, and proudly emulates the honors, of the brave old Fifteenth 
of the Continental Line. 

The city of Worcester has now upwards of one thousand men 
in the service of the country. At the date of the Revolution, the 
County altogether contained a population estimated at twenty-five 
thousand souls. The Fifteenth Continental Regiment, commanded 
by Colonel Timothy Bigelow, was raised from both town and 
county. At the present time, the City alone, comprising about the 
same number of inhabitants as the shire collectively in the Revo- 
lutionary contest, sends forth, as above remarked, more than a 
thousand troops to the field, to wage battle in defence of all that 
we hold most dear, — against the parricidal foes of our common 
rights so audaciously assailed, of the glorious temple of our civil 
liberties and the sacred ark of the Constitution. 

Truly it may be said, that not alone in " ashes " — the buried 
ashes of our fathers — live the ancient fires. They glow with equal 
warmth and intensity in the bosoms of their sons. 

Certainly, at least, it is shown, that the " heart " — the brave 
HEART of our goodly Commonwealth — has lost none of its pristine 
vigor. It is still firm in its beatings, responsive to the throbbings 
of its sturdy youth. Long may it quicken with unabated ardor 
and strength, — the noble energy as re-developed, now, in the ma- 
turity of its manly prime ! 

All homage to heroic Worcester ! — Ever honored be her sons ! 



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